Ending the Cd's Run....

aramesh · « **Reply #20 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 12:11 am »

Think it's going to be servers housing music and customers accessing them through wireless/internet. That way people wont have to download, store (in any form, be it CD or hard disk), and fear of losing.
Right now only ease of use with CD or downloaded music is to carry around wherever one goes. But with improved networks, wirelessly connecting to servers for music would not be difficult.
And so, how one buys music? One logs into the server and pays certain ammount for each song to get access to. And that is where all of ones collection will be too.

jon_010101 · « **Reply #21 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 12:23 am »

The only way I would even consider purchasing online is if it were hi-res, say, 24-96, and I was allowed to re-download it any time in the future, and had a guarantee that it would be accessible for life, and it cost half as much, or less.

Thump553 · « **Reply #22 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 01:19 am »

Most of the concerts I attend these days are either folk music concerts or music festivals. Nearly all the artists at those venues make a big chunk of their (tiny) income from selling CDs at a table in the venue. Lots of times that is just about the only place to find their CDs (except online).

I'll continue to buy CDs to support those artists.

That said, the only time I ever actually use a CD is in my car on long trips. Otherwise it gets ripped to FLAC and played over my Squeezebox (the greatest audio accessory ever). A lot of my CD collection is boxed up and never touched.

Thebiker · « **Reply #23 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 01:23 am »

The CD, as previously mentioned, does soothe the tactile senses, but that is not my only reason for preferring to keep the CD (although I have recently rediscovered vinyl---another story altogether) is the ability to walk into "brick & mortar" and just browse. While I do have favorite artists and genres, the ability to browse a wall of new releases or flip through a rack of music causes the majority of my music purchases.

Obviously, I can browse on line, but it just doesn't have the same level of appeal for me. Just my two cents

.

Walt

timind · « **Reply #24 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 01:42 am »

Quote from: jon_010101 on 21 Mar 2009, 12:23 am

The only way I would even consider purchasing online is if it were hi-res, say, 24-96, and I was allowed to re-download it any time in the future, and had a guarantee that it would be accessible for life, and it cost half as much, or less.

Exactly.
My wife and kids download most of their music. I now have a deal with my daughter to compensate her when she buys a cd instead of downloading it. I store the cd for safe keeping and she can rip it whenever she needs to.

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #25 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 01:46 am »

jazzcourier ; Man, that is PRICELESS!!

A bit cynical, but priceless none the less. Amen brother!

Anybody agree to my theory:
One reason the CD won over the vinyl was because it took up a LOT less space on the shelves?
Think about that for a second.
It benefits the brick and mortar store due to the fact they can pack more "dollars" in a given amount of floor space. It was an easy sell.
True?

Now, what's the next "best thing" for the record labels.....No brick and mortar stores to suck up the profits.
It all goes to the recording company's. The ultimate orgasm; No middle man. They can charge the same amount but get more profit.

It sounds so appealing to the youngsters to download one song from Amazon for $1.00 instead of spending the money for the entire album. Well, what is there, about 12 songs on the average album. That's about $1.00 a song isn't it? See, same price, but no money goes to the corner record store.
True?

Bob

TheChairGuy · « **Reply #26 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 02:35 am »

Quote from: jazzcourier on 20 Mar 2009, 10:59 pm

Now imagine if i owned a manufacturing facility and bought all the resources in bulk-the end cost for that product would be,what at least 50% lower.So i am a major big deal label and i signed the hot new band...call em' "Bum piss" And the cd release "songs i wrote while i watched Munsters reruns" is coming out and will retail for -low 12.99 to high 16.99 .......I paid these guys next to nothing and even though they recorded this on a Sony walkman in the unabomber shack i charged them back all the inflated costs of manufacturing,printing,media ads,my secretary's breast job,my two cars and a whole lot of everything else i could bury in the fine print.

I get your slightly cynical point here - breast jobs are about $5K a pair (yeah, I've asked some folks..and they have said it's cheaper by the pair

), so that probably isn't part of the ripoff equation, but I catch your drift

John

JakeJ · « **Reply #27 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 06:58 am »

Quote from: nathanm on 30 Dec 2008, 09:29 pm

It's a losing battle, though. These are just the baby steps humanity is taking to its final destiny of brains in jars.

I bid 10,000 quatloos on the newcomer!

Having ownership of the physical medium is a must. I have not heard a single streaming system that sounded real yet. To my ears.

JakeJ

doug s. · « **Reply #28 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 07:32 am »

Quote from: Bob in St. Louis on 21 Mar 2009, 01:46 am

Anybody agree to my theory:
One reason the CD won over the vinyl was because it took up a LOT less space on the shelves?
Think about that for a second.
It benefits the brick and mortar store due to the fact they can pack more "dollars" in a given amount of floor space. It was an easy sell.
True?...

ya, it's true, but it's not what drove the industry to make the change. the record labels really didn't cere whether or not they were saving the b&m's any money. (but you are right that they would surely like to eliminate them altogether, if they could sell direct.) the recording industry was into the cd cuz it cost at most 10% of the cost of winyl to manufacture, and they charged 50% more for it.

doug s.

doug s. · « **Reply #29 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 07:37 am »

(nathan, this one's for ewe...

)

dragonwhip, i read this in your avatar:

The world is a museum and I am it's willing patron

do you realize this is what you are actually saying:

The world is a museum and I am it is willing patron

what, exactly, does that mean?

doug s.

Mr Content · « **Reply #30 on:** 21 Mar 2009, 07:57 am »

Problem with downloading music in this country is,.......we are Broadband challenged here, and will be for the foreseeable future. Downloading on dialup would be a bummer

Mr C

orthobiz · « **Reply #31 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 03:13 am »

I am the anti-convenience.

When I listen to music, I go into my basement. Walk to my record rack and pick an album. Walk to the end of the house. Enter my man cave. Shut the door, not an easy task because of the gasket that seals me from my family. Turn on the lights. Put the record on the Loricraft. Decide if it's a garage purchase or one of my college/high school albums: do I do the enzyme and the L'art du Son separate washes or just the L'art do Son? Turn on the main power. Wait for the preamp to click. Turn on the amp. The enzyme has worked by now and I suck the disk dry. Quick L'art du Son rinse. Put it on the table. Turn the table on. Run the record brush one last time, maybe. Drop the needle and listen to the heavenly sound, replete with pops and clicks that somehow don't bother me. Sit in the couch and watch the little undulations of the tonearm as the platter spins. The world is now right. I am at peace.

If I could, I would have installed my room in a pole barn on an island with DC batteries that could only be reached by snowmobile in the winter and jet ski in the summer. And when I'm listening, please wait for the song to end before you speak to me. Because I won't be able to replay the song you interrupted for at least 30 minutes until the vinyl has a chance to recover from the deforming stylus pressure.

Paul

mcullinan · « **Reply #32 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 03:32 am »

The CDs not a bad thing. I think they will be around for a bit.. play them in the car. I dont listen to Cds, well I put them onto the HD and use them once... Hopefully there will be more flac recordings to buy online and I will need CDs even less. I do have an iphone, but no attachment for the car yet, and I mostly listen to satellite radio there anyways.
Mike

mjosef · « **Reply #33 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 06:02 am »

Nostradamus theories has been with us for a millennia ... I don't subscribe to it. At least in my world, the music I am interested in will live on the physical media at least during my time on this planet.
No downloads for me unless its an update to my Windows OS or other related program updates.

orthobiz · « **Reply #34 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 10:45 am »

My favorite configuration is the record album with the CD slipped into the jacket in a plain white wrapper. CD costs nothing to make, right? Kinda like buying a small thing with a big placard attached. You buy it, you can read the credits, you can play the record or the CD. You can give the record away if you want to Goodwill or your friend.

Problem solved?

Paul

adydula · « **Reply #35 on:** 22 Mar 2009, 02:06 pm »

As a 2 ch purist.....I look for the best or highest quality source of media I can play on my system at home at the lowest possible cost.

CD's when first introduced were touted by the vinyl guys as 'bad' to shrilly, too brittle, no more of that sweet warm vinyl sound etc...

But what the brought was :

1. The last pretty much forever and don't wear out mechanically...no vinyl chips flying off into space with your 'snowplows'

:

2. The had a smaller footprint.

3. Convenience, in our homes, in our cars ...very transportable...easily ripped and moved from media to playback device and location.

4. Fit in with the PC revolution....very well.

5. Affordable....you can get 1000's on Amazon for very low prices....yes not new all the time but in the same digital state as new.

With the advent on the newer DTS and Dolby and now the uncompressed audio streams that the high end Blu-Ray and HD media bring to the party the only issue is now does the sound in these new high end streams 'sound any better' than the content on a normal CD?? Can we hear it, can our systems reproduce this in a tangible way and at what cost? Are there any TRUE HD 'music dvd's out yet?

For me to download a song for 99 cents x 10 songs on a CD = $10. Convenient yes, but I can find many cds for less than this on Amazon and I always have the source in my hands. You need to backup your music on your pc's or sooner or later its going to crash and burn...yes if you have a backup fine.

The cost of adding the electronics + media pc + maintenance is there as well in an all digital downloadable world.
Squeezebox, USB DACs, NAS etc...and the only real advantage to me is the convenience of not getting out of your chair to find that song or cd to play.

To many this is great, and I agree here but there is a cost in real dollars and time.

FLAC lossless format is fine, but it takes more storage.

So what would it take to kill cd's: Is it only convenience?

Not for me..it has to be that + overall cost over time + QUALITY of the source at an affordable cost.

If this can be done to what the CD format brings us today...then CD's are doomed...to a back shelf or in garage sales, AND those high end unobtainium net stores for $50 a pop!!

CDs . like DVD's are going to be around for a long time in my humble opinion...and I am glad we have the choice! (Still) aa aa

All the best
Alex

orthobiz · « **Reply #36 on:** 23 Mar 2009, 03:08 am »

Many early CDs suffered from early implementation of Red Book algorithms. But more importantly, it's unknown which copy of the master was used, how much care was taken during processing, etc. This did not necessarily improve with remastering as some versions still lack what the original version had.

I must have around 1000 albums that I collected since my first turntable ca. 1971. I stopped around 1987 and resumed about five years ago. I wouldn't trade it for the world. I listen to vinyl at home and CDs on the road.''

If you give 50 people a CD and 50 people a vinyl record and come back 10 years later, the average person will definitely have more luck caring for the CD, I agree.

Paul